


El-ahrairah and the Starstone

by akamine_chan, Luzula (Luzula_podfic)



Category: Watership Down - Richard Adams
Genre: Community: pt-lightning, Gen, Podfic Collaboration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-30
Updated: 2013-11-30
Packaged: 2018-01-02 22:28:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1062387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akamine_chan/pseuds/akamine_chan, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luzula_podfic/pseuds/Luzula
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes El-ahrairah's cleverness is not enough.</p>
            </blockquote>





	El-ahrairah and the Starstone

**Author's Note:**

> Written by akamine_chan, podficced by Luzula for the Round 1 of pt_lightning. Cover by akamine_chan.

Cover Art provided by akamine_chan.

| 

## Length

00:06:18 

## Downloads (right-click save-as)

  * [mp3 and streaming](https://app.box.com/s/9cj7t9ikzpl2kflahurh) | **Size:** 5.9 MB 
  * [m4b](https://app.box.com/s/tsths39f2q708ug0x2g0) | **Size:** 3.1 MB 

  
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Long ago, the great Frith made the world. He made all the stars, and all the creatures that lived in the world, and he shared the sky with his sister-wife Inlé, the moon.

Between them they watched over world as it turned below, an endless dance.

And it was good.

* * *

El-ahrairah was the fastest and the craftiest rabbit in the world, and he liked to brag about how he outsmarted the fox and the owl, the hawk and the cat. He was the Prince with a Thousand Enemies, after all.

He traveled from warren to warren, telling stories of his prowess at running and digging and scenting predators, and in turn he demanded from each chief rabbit the tastiest flayrah, the warmest burrows, and the best does to mate with. Lord Frith said to multiply and be fruitful, and El-ahrairah was ever obedient, when it suited him.

In his travels, he came upon a hidden warren, tucked away at the edge of a field. The chief rabbit welcomed El-ahrairah, exchanged stories with him, and let him win at bob-stones. El-ahrairah retired to the warren to eat and sleep and mate.

His temporary burrow was already occupied. She was black as night, her fur as soft as dandelion fluff. Her eyes shone like the stars in the sky and when El-ahrairah tried to approach her, she turned and kicked him hard in the nose, as fast as lightning.

El-ahrairah was indignant. "Do you know who I am?" he demanded, licking his paw and rubbing at his nose. It hurt, and he could taste blood in his fur.

The doe twitched her ears at him.

"I am El-ahrairah, Prince with a Thousand Enemies. I am the cleverest rabbit that has ever lived. I have outsmarted the stoat and the eagle, the falcon and the wolf and all the rest of the elil. I have even tricked Lord Frith on occasion."

The doe yawned. "I am Nightbloom. My father is Frith himself, and my mother is his sister-wife Inlé. And you, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, are a braggart and probably only half as cunning as you think you are."

El-ahrairah was of course outraged by the doe's words and he became determined to prove her wrong. He asked her to set him a task, to prove his resourcefulness.

Nightbloom told El-ahrairah a story of the far northern reaches, where there was little to eat and the trees smelled sharp and tangy. Sometimes the stars fell from the sky and glittered and shone on the ground. "Bring me a Starstone," she said, "and I will concede that you are _truly_ the Prince of Rabbits."

And so El-ahrairah set off toward the north, where there was no alfalfa or timothy to be found, and the nights were dark and cold. He ran from elil he'd never seen before: white foxes and wolves, hawk and owls, and a bear larger than any bear El-ahrairah had seen before. Once, when he'd crept near the water's edge, something immense surged out at him, black and white and sharp, sharp teeth. He ran; no shame in retreating before a greater enemy, he knew.

El-ahrairah traveled through the cold, white dirt, until the days blended together, his breath puffing into little clouds. He was tired, and hungry, and the night swirled green and blue and purple, and Inlé hung in the sky like a blind, silver eye. 

He found a patch of flay, dried and tasteless, but it was better than nothing and it kept him going a little longer. And just when he was about to give up, to lie down and wait for the Black Rabbit to come for him, he saw it, a glint in the cold dirt. His paws were numb, but he clawed and dug at the ground until the shard of Starstone came free.

When he touched the Starstone, El-ahrairah felt a shock of _knowing_. He saw, for the first time, how small and insignificant he was in comparison to the world, to Frith-the-Sun and Inlé-the-Moon in the sky, and the glitter of stars around them. El-ahrairah cowered on the ground for a long moment, feeling his very soul shrivel under the weight of the dispassionate gaze of the universe.

And then El-ahrairah remembered Frith's words, "Be cunning and full of tricks, and your people will never be destroyed," and the memory filled El-ahrairah's heart with courage and strength. He stood up, the Starstone in his mouth, and headed south toward Nightbloom's warren.

* * *

She didn't seem surprised at El-ahrairah's return, just bowed her head and gave him his due acknowledgement. "Prince of Rabbits," she said softly. Nightbloom rested her paw on the Starstone. "Thank you."

El-ahrairah shook his head. "For what?"

"For freeing me." Nightbloom shivered, and El-ahrairah realized that she was fading away. "I can finally go home, to the stars where I belong. I've been trapped here for so long. . ." 

El-ahrairah could barely see the outline of her, watching as she floated up, up, up into the night sky. The stars twinkled and she disappeared with a sighing sound.

_"Thank you, El-ahrairah, Prince of Rabbits. Like Frith-my-father, I will give you a gift: the gift of remembrance. Long after the Black Rabbit has come and gone, your people will remember you, digger, listener, runner. The tales of your deeds will outlive all of your enemies."_

El-ahrairah looked up at Inlé, so bright in the sky, and hoped it would be a good long time before the Black Rabbit came for him.

-fin-

**Author's Note:**

> Aka: Luzula approached me about collaborating on a Watership Down story, and of course I jumped at the chance, and then proceeded to get buffeted by RL. I handed Luzula the story on Thursday, she podficced and edited in time for the deadline on Friday. She's amazing, and patient and talented, and really, one of my favorite people in the world. <3 Thanks for everything, Luzula.
> 
> I'd wanted to do something that focused on a doe showing up El-ahrairah, and this is totally not that story. Next time. 
> 
> And many thanks to Ande for beta, as usual.
> 
> Luz: I've recorded several stories of Aka's before, and it's always been delightful, but we'd never collaborated on something, and I've thought for a while that we should really do that! So for the lightning round of pod-together I asked if Aka wanted to write something in Watership Down, which is a small fandom that we both love. Both of us ended up being really busy this month, but I'm so pleased that we managed to write and record this story despite that! 
> 
> I hadn't recorded anything since August, because I've been moving and having emotional upheavals and living temporarily in noisy places, and I was so happy to get back to podficcing with this story. ♥ I love traditional storytelling styles.


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